South India’s weather pattern changed; bringing more heatwaves and heavy rainfall, says study

This study is one of the first to investigate long-term changes in tropical weather patterns and their relationship with extreme events on a daily time scale.The emerging patterns cannot be explained by interannual modes of natural variability, such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), but they are instead likely driven by long-term trends from the 1940s to the present.The study found that certain Indo-Pacific regions such as South India, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines and western Pacific exhibit markedly increased frequency of heatwaves and severe rainfall by three to four times than normal.“Extreme rainfall may also lead to crop failure, contamination of drinkable water, and landslides and more frequent heat waves may lead to high peaks in electricity demand with possible power outages, many heat-related illnesses,” said the main author of the paper Mengaldo Gianmarco of College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore.“Further efforts are required to better prepare policymakers and local communities for a changing climate,” he further said.



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